Recent spacecraft missions are providing exciting new insights into surface processes and landscape evolution on other terrestrial planets. New imagery coupled with detailed topographic data and ground truth results from rovers are giving us high-resolution information about landforms, sedimentary deposits, and surface processes. Together these new datasets provide new insights into significant questions about planetary geomorphology. For example, When and how active were fluvial processes on Mars? What is the nature of the methane ‘rivers’ on Titan?

Enormous research potential exists at the interface of geomorphology and planetary sciences, and in particular at the comparison between surface systems on earth with those on other planetary bodies. This is because landscapes on other planets represent geomorphic experiments conducted under different environmental conditions.

Some of the most spectacular landscapes in the Solar System are found on Mars. Evidence from high-resolution imagery from the HRSC instrument suggests episodes of catastrophic flooding resulting from abrupt groundwater release. Session GM7 presents contributions on Mars as well as from the Saturn moons Titan and Dione.

Session: GM7 Comparing and contrasting planetary landscapes and surface processes | >>programme